An increased spending on agriculture has not reduced poverty and income inequalities.

Rwanda is among the few countries in Africa that have gradually increased spending on agriculture with 9.2 percent of public resources allocated directly and indirectly into the agriculture sector against 10 percent target by Malabo Declaration in 2003.

According to a recent joint study carried out by African Growth and Development Policy Modeling Consortium (AGRODEP) in partnership with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), there is a need for the government to improve outcomes for the most vulnerable.

Under the declaration, the signatory countries committed to reducing poverty through agriculture by 50 percent, but Rwanda is still edging out 16.7 percent of people lifted from poverty.

“Under the Business as Usual scenario, Rwanda would make insufficient progress towards meeting most of the CAADP commitments and objectives although the country meets the goal of increasing public agricultural investment targets,” researchers noted.

“The current investment trend simulated in the baseline scenario would leave Rwanda off-track to meet these objectives,” the joint analysis noted.

To improve the competitiveness of the sector and its attractiveness to private investors as one of the intervention areas the government would need to work on.

However, the recent years were marked by slower agricultural growth owing to stagnating crop yield and the smallholding size, climate conditions, soil degradation and erosion.

According to the analysis, although Rwanda's agricultural gross domestic product has recently posted significant growth, it remains below the declaration target growth of 5.3 percent and 9.2percent allocation of public expenditure to agriculture.